A Healthy Spiritual Heart Forgives

 

    A teacher asked the children in her Sun­day School class, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would I get into heaven?” “NO!” the children all answered. “If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would I get into heaven?” Again, the answer was “NO!” “Well,” she continued, “then how can I get to heaven?” In the back of the room, a five-year-old boy shouted out, “You gotta be dead!”

    Our doctors want us to be healthy and so they ask, “Let me listen to your heart.” But who helps you with a spiritual heart condition? Often, the spiritual heart is hurting more than we ever let on. Christians often see Spiritual deficiencies in others, but not in themselves. Our spiritual health depends on what we are willing to accept Spiritually (Luke 9:46-48). The One listening to our spiritual heart knows all about us and we must be ready and willing to accept His diagnosis and His recommended corrective action. I take comfort in knowing that the Great Physician is monitoring my spiritual heart’s health.

    The Old Testament provides a record of many memorable stories that teach us valuable life lessons. However, our use of Old Testament is sometimes limited to those familiar stories that we heard as children. Stories about creation, Abraham, Moses, David and Goliath, and Daniel in the lions den. In limiting ourselves to these old familiar stories, we might be robing ourselves of many rich stories that God intended for us to know – a sort of reading between the lines for better understanding.

    For instance, do you remember the Old Testament story of Eliam? Eliam is a rather obscure character of the Old Testament and often overlooked. In fact, the name is only mentioned twice. This is the story of one of those two men.

    [2 Samuel 11] Eliam was the father of a little girl. Like all fathers, he loved his daughter and watched her grow into a beautiful young lady. The day finally came when Eliam gave his daughter’s hand to a young man to be his wife. Eliam’s daughter and son-in-law were making a life together when tragedy befell them. One day, when Eliam’s son-in-law was away at work, a man who had quit a bit of power in the region, sent men to Eliam’s son-in-law and daughter’s house. These men entered her home, took her away, brought her to the man of power, and he had sexual relations with her. Not only that, but this man of power also had Eliam’s son-in-law murdered.

    For the record, Eliam’s son-in-law was Uriah. His daughter was Bathsheba. And the man of power was King David. Ah! Now you remember the story. It was just told from a unique perspective, through the eyes of Eliam. We know and love King David in spite of his murderous and adulterous actions. We “brush off” his mistakes and count him as one of our heroes. I have some questions: Do you think Eliam viewed David as a hero? Through the eyes of Eliam, how do you suppose the man who murdered his son-in-law, and stole away his daughter was viewed? Do you think it might have been harder for Eliam to forgive David than it was for us? Surely, and that brings me to my point.

    We can talk about forgiveness all day long and know all the correct answers, but we may not appreciate how much work this spiritual discipline requires. Forgiveness is easy until you really need to forgive someone. Loving our enemies is easy until you really have an enemy of your own. One should not get over-confident in one’s ability and willingness to forgive. One must continue to work and mature in this spiritual discipline. And when one thinks they have arrived, go back and look through the eyes of Eliam. Stay healthy.

Overcoming Evil Wtih Goodness

 

An old man was walking through the land pulling a small, two-wheeled cart behind him. At last, he came upon a village. As he entered the little hamlet, the villagers moved toward their homes, locking doors and windows. The stranger smiled and asked, “Why are you all so frightened? I am a simple traveler, looking for a soft place to stay for the night and a warm place for a meal.” “There’s not a bite to eat in the whole province,” he was told. “We are weak and our children are starving. Better keep moving on.” “I have everything I need,” he said. “In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you.” He pulled an iron cauldron from beneath a tarpaulin in his cart. He filled the huge pot with water and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a silken bag and dropped it into the water. By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come out of their homes. As the stranger sniffed the “broth” and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome the villagers’ fear. “Ahh,” the stranger said to himself rather loudly, “I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage ––that’s hard to beat.” Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a small cabbage he’d retrieved from its hiding place. He added it to the pot. “Wonderful!” cried the stranger. “You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king!” The village butcher managed to find some salt beef. And so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms and other vegetables until there was indeed a delicious meal for everyone in the village to share. The village elder offered the stranger a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell it. As he was leaving the village, the stranger came upon a group of village children standing near the road. He gave the silken bag containing the stone to the youngest child, whispering to the group, “It was not the stone, but the villagers who performed the magic.” —Melanie Silva

[Romans 12:21] “Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Several teens were posed the question: “If you were a superhero, what super-power would you want to have?” Answers range from extreme speed to flight, and from x-ray vision to great strength. Everyone wants to be in control and not beaten back by the villains of the world. So, on the surface, everyone agrees wholeheartedly that we shouldn’t be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good – like ‘good’ is some sort of super-power to wield.

But Jesus tells us that only God is good (Matthew 19:17). And yet, we are to add goodness to our faith (Galatians 6:9-10) in “increasing measure” to “receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom.” This shows the fruit of the spirit to be rare but certainly growable in our lives (Galatians 5:22-26).

The key to having goodness is found at the beginning of Romans chapter 12. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, not conforming to the pattern of this world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Then we can be like God, who alone is good, to overcome evil with good. Spiritual super-powers don’t come as gifts to be given but as fruits to be grown. Don’t wait until you’re hungry to plant a garden. The seeds of faith and hope are found in the Word of God – Jesus’ parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4-15). The seeds of life (Luke 8:11) can be planted from God’s Word into the heart of every living being to grow into the spiritual fruit God desires that we all produce in this life. If such a garden were growing in the hearts of everyone, we could be living in a spiritual Garden of Eden. Love and peace exist in the heart of those who love one another (1 Corinthians 13:4-13).

He Who Has Ears To Hear...

 

Mankind has al­ways wanted to play and have fun rather than work. We have always wanted to be entertained, more than to be serious about spiritual matters. This desire is worldliness at its core.

What we sometimes fail to realize is that this mindset was common long before mod­ern gadgets and playthings. Centuries before smart phones, cars, jets and cruise ships, peo­ple sought the pleasures of life. They wanted the best food, the nicest clothes, the most comfortable houses, and the most exciting forms of entertainment. This craving char­acterized people in Noah’s time, people in Jesus’ time, and people of today. In every case, this attitude always has the same effect: it leaves people with little interest in spiritual things. Whatever religion remains, is cold and lifeless. Religious leaders are expected to be shallow advisors instead of convicting preachers of the Word.

How little life has changed. A homeschooling history book describes the religious climate of New En­gland in the 1700’s (America: Land I Love, Beka, 1994, p.69). A Connecticut historian described the situation by saying that “…the forms of religion were kept, but there ap­peared but little of the power of it.” Preachers of the period “…contented themselves with preaching a cold, unprin­cipled and lifeless morality.” Even without temptations we consider to be modern and unique to our generation, these early Amer­icans were absorbed with worldly cares and pleasures and had little concern about their souls.

[Luke 8:14] “Now the ones (the seed – God’s Word) that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and plea­sures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” The world has always offered mankind pleasure. It has always suffo­cated spirituality because men love darkness rather than light (John 3:19). What a warning this case should be to us! The craving for worldly pleasures quickly stifles the power of the Word of God in our lives! We must make sure as individuals that we are spiritually minded. We must fight as the church to resist the trend to become an entertainment center. We must keep the fo­cus of the pulpit and classrooms on teaching the Word of God in all its power. Let us learn from the past instead of repeating it.

Many give lip service to the Bible and claim to believe that it is the Word of God. When Jesus was walking the earth, the Jews thought they were worshiping God when in reality they were just following the traditions and commands of men. Jesus said this wor­ship was vain or useless (Matthew 15:1-10). Do we really know what God has said in His Word? Do we believe what the Holy Spirit inspired writers recorded for us in the Bible? Are we following God in our worship or like the Jews, are we listening to what men (preachers, teachers, the world) say about our spiritual life? Jesus said that not every one that says, “Lord, Lord” will be saved (Matthew 7:21). In our every­day language, that means we can’t just “talk the talk”, we must also “walk the walk”!

Paul wrote “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus …and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). Je­sus “walked the walk” so that we could be saved. Should one not be willing to “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” to Him? (Romans 12:1)

The Jews of long ago didn’t have a “ready reference” as to what God commanded as we do today. Open your Bible and read it. Some day every ear will hear its words, and every knee will bow to Jesus. (Matthew 13:36-43) He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Christianity Is Good For You

 

A certain father was trying to teach his son the value of sacrificing for the things we really want in life. At the moment the boy could think of nothing grander than to own a BB gun. His father wanted to help, so he told the son that he would double anything that the boy saved. That sounded pretty generous and the boy began at once. Things went along pretty well for a while, and the funds grew rapidly. There was no mention of it as the funds grew to $10 saved. Not much by to­day’ s standards, but there are some children who would have a tough time saving $10 as they rarely see that kind of money. A month or so later the father happened to think of the proposal and asked his son how much mon­ey he had saved. Hesitantly, the boy told his father that he didn’t have the money he had saved up. “I spent it for something else,” is all he could mutter. All dad could see was that his lesson in saving and sacrifice had gone up in some frivolous moment.

The father pressed the son for an explana­tion, expecting to hear of some trivial and wasteful purchase. “Well, Son, it was your money and if you didn’t really want the gun…” “But, Daddy, I do want the gun. I’ve even dreamed about it, but I bought a Chinese boy instead.” The obvious question was forthcoming, “How in the world did you do that?” The little boy recounted how the Sun­day school teacher had informed them that they could contribute money to mission work and help save the souls of other young people just like themselves, so the little boy gave his $10 to help save another soul.

We all know who learned the greatest les­son in sacrifice that day. When a boy can teach a lesson such as this to a grown man, can we as Christians learn just such a great lesson in sacrificing? Not only our time and our money, but our very existence helps save this lost world.

It turns out that Christianity is good for you, and good for your kids. Aren’t I Captain Obvious? Well, I suppose if you have been listening too much to certain atheists it might not be obvious. Richard Dawkins has claimed that teaching children to accept their parent’s religion is a form of child abuse and suggests it’s even more damaging than sexual abuse. Interesting attention-grabbing statement—and completely wrong.

If you look at Christian families with unbiased eyes it is to see how beneficial practicing the Christian faith can be. If you need further proof, consider a 2018 Harvard Study. Researchers kept track of over five thousand youth for over a decade. Their findings? Young people who went to church and prayed were more likely to say they were happy, more likely to volunteer, and less likely to use drugs. The study’s author, Ying Chen, said “Many children are raised religiously, and our study shows that this can powerfully affect their behaviors, mental health, and overall happiness and well-being.” I didn’t need a Harvard professor to tell me that - but it’s nice when someone sees the truth.

[John 3:16; Romans 5:6-11] God sacrifices His Son for us. What are we sacrificing for Him? May we carry this same spirit over into an everyday attitude of “giving” of ourselves, and may we be encouraged to have the same diligence to show the sincerity of our love for God as we lay by in store each first day of the week.

(2 Corinthians 9:6-7) “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” The marvelous thing is that if we do this without a covetous desire, we’ll reap more than we sow. God’s shovel is just bigger than ours. Besides, all you possess belongs to God already – on lone to you.

Making The Right Choices

 

“The Choice” by unknown author. “I dreamed that it was Judgement Day, it hit me pretty hard. To meet my Maker face to face, and receive my reward. As I stood there before Him, He sadly shook His head. He turned the pages of the Book, and I was filled with dread! He looked me squarely in the eye; I knew I’d lost the race. Too many times I’d made the choice, and God took second place.”

A few years ago, I received a call from a lady at the hospital, presumably a staff nurse. She said a patient wanted to see a church of Christ preacher. I went to the hospital to see a man I had never seen before. He was near death and wanted me to say a prayer for him. He then related that he was a member of the Church but had not been in a church building for years. But now at the end of his life, he wanted to have a prayer. I took his hand and prayed as he requested. I’m not anyone’s judge, but I have a very difficult time with those who want to live apart from the Lord until the last minute of life. I truly fear for their soul. I know God forgives when we repent (1 John 1) and I pray that prayer is enough repentance.

But what about all the years away from the Body of Christ? What about those person’s he might have reached with the gospel? I can’t help but worder if a deathbed prayer is true repentance. We are told to “redeem the time” (Ephesians 5:15-16). And surely this person I visited had not done so. Regardless, such a person’s soul is in the hands of God and God is the judge of us all (Acts 10:42). But it is wise not to wait; death may come unannounced.

[1 John 2:2] “And He Himself (Jesus) is the propitiation (our atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”  “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).

If Jesus is every lost person’s Savior, why isn’t every lost person saved? The answer to this question is very easy. The Lord Jesus saves only those who respond to His call to salvation, which is the gospel (2 Thessalonians 2:14). He saves only those who get into Him and put Him on in water baptism (Romans 6:3; Galatians 3:27). Baptism that puts one into Christ, and by which one puts on Christ has to be preceded by one’s faith in Christ as the Son of God, the Savior which came down from above (John 8:21-24). Baptism must also be preceded by repentance of sin, and by confession that Jesus is God’s Son (Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9-10).

Today you have the power within your grasp to change this horrible nightmare of judgement into that blessed assurance of a home in heaven with God for eternity. Yes, you have the ability to change your destiny, your eternal home, heaven or hell, by the choices you choose to make – today and the rest of your life. In a hundred years it won’t matter what kind of car you drove, how big your house was, or even how well you could swing a golf club or throw a rope. What will matter is how true one has been to the Bible.

John 12:47-50 tells us that God’s Word, the Bible, will judge us. “And if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority, but the Father who sent Me gave Me command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

Be sure you’re making the right choices, for your choices will dictate your home for eternity.